Press release:Kingfisher signs French Business Climate Pledge

In the lead up to the COP 21 climate talks in Paris, Kingfisher plc is pleased to announce that it has signed the "French Business Climate Pledge", launched today.

39 businesses have signed the pledge, demonstrating their commitment to combating climate change, to making COP 21 a success and to limiting the warming of the earth to 2°C.

The pledge includes aggregated commitments from these companies in terms of investments to fight against climate change, such as the use of renewable energy and the systematic reduction of greenhouse gas emissions throughout the lifecycle of their products.

Read the full announcement below, followed by Kingfisher's commitments.

FRENCH BUSINESS CLIMATE PLEDGE

39 major French companies take concrete action to combat climate change

Paris, November 26, 2015 – In the lead-up to the Paris climate summit (COP 21), 39 major French companies, employing a total of 4.4 million people worldwide and generating sales of 1,200 billion euros, have made a firm commitment to combat climate change. By signing this climate pledge, they want to contribute to making COP 21 a success and to limiting the warming of the Earth to 2°C. They emphasize their driving role and leadership in the fight for a more sustainable world.

Active since many years, these companies are taking concrete steps to reduce their carbon footprint through:

The use of active and passive energy efficiency solutions,

The use of renewable energy, notably hydro, wind or solar energy,

The systematic reduction of greenhouse gas emissions throughout the life cycle of their products,

From 2016 to 2020, the 39 companies plan to invest at least 45 billion euros in industrial projects and R&D devoted to renewable energy, energy efficiency and other low carbon technologies. Over the same period, they also intend to provide bank and bond financing of at least 80 billion euros for projects contributing to the fight against climate change.

In addition, they foresee low carbon investments of 15 billion euros in new nuclear capacities and investments of 30 billion euros in natural gas as energy transition solution, planned over the next five years.

THE SIGNATORIES

Augustin de Romanet, chairman and chief executive officer of Aéroports de Paris

Kingfisher plc is an international home improvement company which operates nearly 1,200 stores in 10 countries in Europe. Its main brands are B&Q, Castorama, Brico Dépôt and Screwfix. Kingfisher also operates the Koçtaş joint venture in Turkey.

The company has an ambition to bring a positive contribution to the environment: creating economic, social and environmental value by fully integrating sustainability into business as usual.

Kingfisher’s convictions

That’s why, in the frame of the discussions around COP 21, Kingfisher strongly states :

Its support in favour of a 2C-compliant low carbon economy

Its belief that the low carbon agenda is good for business and the wider economy ;

Its wish to support low carbon innovations, especially in the fields of its business.

Kingfisher’s commitments

Kingfisher believes it can fight against climate change with every day, affordable, products, while reducing its own carbon footprint. That’s why the business has made the following commitments by 2020:

To reduce the environmental footprint of stores, by decreasing energy consumption by 45% (from a 2010/11 baseline) – so far the business has reduced by 17%;

To enable customers to make their home more comfortable, affordable and sustainable, Kingfisher’s retail brands have developed a quality offer in terms of products and services, at an affordable price with an ambition to enable customers to save 38 TWh – so far customers have saved 8.6 TWh through purchasing Kingfisher products and services

More broadly, the company has set the objective of a 25% reduction of its absolute CO2 emissions by 2020.

Outreach actions

To contribute to awareness-raising amongst stakeholders about fighting against climate change, Kingfisher has launched several initiatives:

Joining several business campaigns calling for an ambitious agreement on climate;

Communicating to customers the importance of climate change and about the concrete solutions offered;

Raising awareness amongst employees; .

Sharing with the public our commitments at « Solutions COP 21 » at the Grand Palais from December 4th to 10th.